How this was built

Methodology & Sources

Every figure is read from Brazil's own official records, counted, not modeled. Cases come from the Diário Oficial da União, cross-referenced against the CNPJ corporate registry for company age, capital, location and CNAE sector.

The dataset behind this dashboard comes from a structured review of investor-residency approvals published in the Diário Oficial da União (DOU), Brazil's federal official gazette. Because a residency approval is a public administrative act, the DOU is a reliable primary source for identifying every case and tracking it over time.

Each published decision was then cross-referenced against Brazil's corporate registry to capture, for company and startup investors, the company's age, its registered share capital, its location and its economic activity code (CNAE). The unit of analysis is one approved individual: a real person the government granted residency to, published by name, not a company or an application. Nothing on this dashboard is sampled, projected or modelled.

What is counted, and over what period. The research covers every year of the program, one row per approved individual. This public dashboard shows 2025, the consolidated year: team-curated and reconciled to the published research. DOU-labelled startup cases whose registered capital shows the company route (R$500,000 or more) are counted under the company route, so startup counts are conservative. Percentages are of the relevant pathway or subgroup unless noted, and are shown as whole numbers. Origin is the investor's nationality; geography is the Brazilian state where the company operates (property purchases are filed nationally and carry no state).

How the figures are checked. Every number is recomputed from the case-level records, never read from a pre-totalled summary cell. The known headline figures, the pathway totals, the country counts and the processing-time averages are pinned: the build fails if a recompute ever drifts from the published research. Dollar amounts are converted live from each route's fixed reais minimum.

The underlying records were compiled by StartBrazil's researchers from the public sources below, between January and March 2026, with the dataset finalized on 30 June 2026. As with any large hand-compiled dataset, individual cells may contain occasional human or computational errors; figures are recomputed from the raw records and should be reviewed before high-stakes use. This is a research tool, not legal advice.

Open data. The 2025 record is published as a free aggregate CSV under CC BY 4.0: download the 2025 aggregate CSV and its data dictionary.

The sources

• Diário Oficial da União: Brazil's federal official gazette; every investor-residency decision is published here by law.
• MigranteWeb: The Ministry of Justice immigration case system: each application, its follow-up requests (exigências) and its decision.
• CNPJ company registry: Brazil's national registry of companies: each invested company's age, registered capital, location and CNAE sector.
• Receita Federal, CNPJ lookup: The tax authority's service for verifying a company's registration at source.
• CNIg normative resolutions: The National Immigration Council resolutions (RN 13/2017, RN 36/2018) that define the investor routes.
• Migration Law 13.445/2017: The statute governing how foreigners reside and invest in Brazil, the legal basis for all three routes.
• OBMigra: Brazil's migration-statistics observatory, source for the wider context figures.
• Polícia Federal, Sismigra: The Federal Police migration registry, behind the year-by-year residence figures used for context.

From 2018 through June 2026 Brazil approved 2,792 individual investor-residency cases from 87 countries, Real Estate 1,138, Company 1,630, and just 24 via the startup route. Every figure is read from Brazil's official record (Diário Oficial da União, MigranteWeb, CNPJ registry). 2025 is the curated final year (516 approvals); other years are provisional pending review, and 2026 covers January–June. Dataset frozen 30 June 2026.

Approvals by year (2018–2026)

Investor pathways (2018–2026)

Top countries of origin (2018–2026)

Explore: Foreign Investment in Brazil 2025: 516 Investor Visa Approvals, by Route and Country · Brazil Real Estate Residency Route 2018–2026 · Brazil Company Investment Residency 2018–2026 · Brazil Startup Investor Visa Data 2018–2026 · American investors in Brazil 2018–2026 · European Investors in Brazil 2018–2026 · Chinese Investors in Brazil 2018–2026 · Where Investors Settle Across Brazil, by State · Compare Brazil's Investor Residency Routes · Brazil investor-residency rankings 2018–2026 · Brazil Investor Residency: What the Terms Mean · Brazil Residency Eligibility Test · Methodology and Sources · Brazil Investor Residency 2018: 158 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2019: 303 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2020: 187 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2021: 271 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2022: 299 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2023: 354 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2024: 446 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2025: 516 Approvals by Route · Brazil Investor Residency 2026: 249 Approvals by Route

Interactive charts require JavaScript. Source: Diário Oficial da União (DOU) · MigranteWeb · CNPJ corporate registry. Full research report →